Interview

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It’s a rare actress who can skip the ingénue stage and enter Hollywood as a full-fledged star. But that’s what Marion Cotillard did when she appeared out of nowhere (to American audiences, at least) as the living, breathing, singing, and boozing embodiment of Édith Piaf in 2007’s La Vie en Rose. That passionate performance won her an Academy Award for best actress—only the second time a performer has received the award for a non-English-speaking role (the first was Sophia Loren in 1962 for Two Women, 1960). By the time Cotillard took to the stage that night at the Oscars, she had already become a major Hollywood commodity. But the fact that she has managed to make such a fast stake in American cinema when the careers of so many gorgeous, talented foreign actresses have faded after a few accent-heavy roles is a testament to something larger at work. Unlike the only other comparable French import, Catherine Deneuve, the 34-year-old Cotillard doesn’t rely on a glacial seriousness, but instead projects a penetrating, almost wounded sensitivity in her characters, as if she’s thinking about them as having lives, histories, and disappointments that go beyond their time on the screen. Her versatility is evidenced in two prime performances in 2009—first as Billie Frechette, a mobster’s moll, in Michael Mann’s John Dillinger biopic Public Enemies, and then as Luisa Contini, the malcontent wife in Rob Marshall’s Nine (where Cotillard once again got to put her singing voice to use).

Cotillard’s seemingly endless range may have something to do with her upbringing: She was raised by actor parents in Paris and the outlying countryside. Today, the actress still considers Paris her home—not that she’s there very much anymore, with a full docket of roles ahead of her. This summer she appeared in Christopher Nolan’s recently released nightmarish thriller Inception, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, and she has just signed on to play a doctor in Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion. But the role Cotillard is probably most excited about is leading her back to her native city—this summer she begins filming Midnight in Paris with Woody Allen. For all of her outside projects—she works closely with Greenpeace, is the face of Lady Dior, and lately has taken to dressing up like a man and performing under the name Simone with the French rock act Yodelice—Cotillard still comes across as quiet, innocent, and sweetly optimistic to the point that it’s hard to imagine her capable of channeling the stormy, self-destructive temper of a woman like Piaf. Perhaps that’s because acting is only part of what gives her life meaning—and Cotillard wants to find meaning. She recently reconnected with her Nine co-star (and fellow Oscar-winner) Nicole Kidman, to discuss the mysteries of life, death, deforestation, learning to love what you hate, and how to curb the wasteful nature of craft service on a movie set.

NICOLE KIDMAN: Marion!

MARION COTILLARD: Nicole, where are you?

KIDMAN: I’m in Nashville. Where are you?

COTILLARD: I’m in Paris.

KIDMAN: But weren’t you just in the Congo?

COTILLARD: I was until two days ago. I was in the Congo for a week because I’ve been working with Greenpeace for a while and I’ve been wanting to do a documentary about the forest there. It’s one of the most ancient forests in the world and I met all of these amazing people who are trying to fight against the timber industry cutting down the trees there. People were telling me all about their lives and how they are trying to survive in a country where there is so much corruption. I even slept in one of the forest villages. I really connected to the people there—their hopes and despair and struggles. It was an intense and beautiful trip.

KIDMAN: Are you hopeful that this forest can be saved?

COTILLARD: Well, the situation is pretty dire. The civil war there lasted for almost a decade, which in an odd way actually saved the forest from being destroyed during that time. But now that the war has ended, it’s easier for those who want the trees—businesses from Europe to China—to come in and take the riches of the country. There are really no rules about doing that. For a pack of smokes and a few beers you can gain the right to cut down the trees. So through the first days of my trip the problem seemed really dark. But when I started talking to people, I realized that there was some hope—they want to get their power back. That made me feel like there was hope to make things right. Hopefully I, along with the people at Greenpeace, can be a witness to what is happening over there.

KIDMAN: And serve as the international voice. How did this become your passion, this desire to protect the Earth?

COTILLARD: I think it comes from my family—especially my grandmother. I remember when I was a little girl at her house in Brittany. When she cooked, she wouldn’t waste anything. And my parents always raised me to believe that the most important thing was respect. Respect the place you live, be aware of the impact that you have on things. I was lucky to have this education growing up. I was born in Paris and raised in the suburbs and then lived in the countryside. We had a beautiful house with a huge garden. When I moved to the country, I was really connected to nature and the seasons. So when I finally went back to Paris, I had a very hard time connecting with the city again and the way we waste so much. I started to read and teach myself about the environment—and why it was not organic and natural to be living in the city.

KIDMAN: It’s a beautiful upbringing to have had because it was even before it became so politically correct to be environmentally concerned. It was just ingrained in you from day one. Where we live now, in Nashville, we support the little local farm up the road. We get them to give us vegetables and fruits that are in season and that’s what we eat. But you did that as a child.